


After the Press Conference

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen, Sentinel Thursday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-25
Updated: 2017-05-25
Packaged: 2018-11-04 19:04:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10997067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: Jim and Blair talk...





	After the Press Conference

  
After the Press Conference

  
by Bluewolf

  
Jim was aware of the smell of dinner cooking as he unlocked the door of apartment 307.

  
Well, at least Blair had come home! Jim's memory of the desolation on his friend's face as he trashed four years' work in four seconds on TV had made him wonder if he would arrive home to an empty loft and a note that said something like 'Goodbye, Jim, I'm out of your hair for good.'

  
Moving on automatic pilot, Jim hung up his jacket then went to the kitchen area.

  
Blair glanced at him. "Hi, Jim." He was making a brave attempt to sound normal.

  
Tempted for the briefest of moments to do the same, Jim knew it would be a major mistake. "I saw your press conference."

  
"Oh." Blair swallowed. "It was just a book."

  
"It was your future career, and you junked it. I'm guessing Rainier's kicked you out, right?"

  
Blair sighed. "Yeah. Even though I'd never presented it as my diss... and wouldn't have been able to if Berkshire had published it, because Rainier didn't see it first... Edwards didn't give me a chance to say 'dissertation on the work of the police'. She just wanted rid of me; has done since she had to back down over the Ventriss case."

  
"And you've lost everything you've worked for, for how many years?"

  
"Not everything," Blair said. "I found you, and... I hope we're still friends?"

  
"Always, Chief - always. But you've lost your academic career - "

  
"That was... " He hesitated for a moment. "I've always enjoyed learning, but going to University, staying on after I graduated and working towards a PhD, was really a way to delay deciding what I wanted to do with my life. After finding The Sentinels of Paraguay and reading it, I wanted to find a sentinel... that was my real ambition, and I accomplished that. Getting the chance to work with one - with you - was something beyond my wildest dreams."

  
"So would you be happy if we could get you a job with the police, working as my official partner?"

  
"Would they accept a self-admitted fraud as a detective?"

  
"You did say 'A good bit of fiction'. Easy to claim you'd meant to say 'apparent dissertation' - we've always said what you were writing about involved the police. Could you write that 'closed society' thing up and present it somewhere? It would give you academic credibility again." 

  
"Probably. But I wouldn't take up an academic career again. It's not really important. Abandoning it is no great loss, man. No great loss. Losing you would be the real loss."

  
Jim looked at him, and smiled.


End file.
